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en-usTechdirt. Stories filed under "conference"https://ii.techdirt.com/s/t/i/td-88x31.gifhttps://www.techdirt.com/Mon, 3 Mar 2014 20:04:00 PSTRSA Tried To Get TrustyCon BootedMike Masnickhttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140228/16231726394/rsa-tried-to-get-trustycon-booted.shtml
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140228/16231726394/rsa-tried-to-get-trustycon-booted.shtmlpaid $10 million to RSA to promote a compromised crypto standard, a bunch of security experts canceled their appearance, with many then going on to set up Trustycon, a much smaller conference on technology and security, to be held right across the street from Moscone at the Metreon movie theater. Trustycon announced that it quickly sold out of the 400 tickets available, but apparently RSA decided to try to get them kicked out of their venue.

A report in the NYTimes notes that RSA officials called the Metreon to claim that Trustycon attendees would be involved in protests and that it shouldn't allow the event to go on:

The organizers of a rival conference, called TrustyCon, which was organized following revelations that RSA had been paid by the N.S.A., said they had spent much of the past weekend persuading executives from the Metreon — another big, downtown center next to the Moscone — not to kick them out of their conference space. The Metreon was set to house the TrustyCon conference on Thursday but Metreon’s management began to grow concerned after they received calls from RSA’s conference organizers.

The RSA organizers warned the Metreon that TrustyCon attendees were arranging a huge boycott on their premises. In the end, the TrustyCon conference was able to proceed Thursday without a hitch.

Talk about extreme pettiness. RSA is the giant in this situation, and despite pretending to address the controversy, it actually did little to deal with the reported claims at all. The least it could have done is been gracious to those who set up TrustyCon. Instead, it apparently chose to be vindictive and petty. It says a lot about the way in which RSA views the world.

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]]>petty-in-the-extremehttps://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20140228/16231726394Mon, 24 Sep 2012 19:58:00 PDTA Conference All About Art On The WebMike Masnickhttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120921/22332220469/conference-all-about-art-web.shtml
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120921/22332220469/conference-all-about-art-web.shtmlwritten about in the past, has been working on a cool series of events in NYC recently, called RUCKUS NYC, trying to bring together a variety of artists who are using the web to their advantage. Of course, it's not just a gathering, but a concert as well. He's also running a Kickstarter campaign, seeking support for the event, which looks quite cool. That campaign ends soon if you'd like to help out and support it.

Art matters. And it’s hard. So we’re bringing a bunch of amazing people together to talk about how they make their art, get it online, and build a career.

We’re artists ourselves. And the changing digital tools, the power (or not) of the old system, and the pressures of the economy are all big, scary issues for us. We’re building RUCKUS NYC to help each other find a way forward.

We've been seeing more and more stories of artists looking forward, rather than backwards. Of looking at opportunities, rather than looking for a place to point the blame finger in a changing market place. It's nice to see positive events like this one springing up.

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]]>ruckushttps://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20120921/22332220469Wed, 8 Aug 2012 16:00:11 PDTIntervention: The Conference Celebrating Internet CreativityJames Harknellhttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120731/02205319889/intervention-conference-celebrating-internet-creativity.shtml
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120731/02205319889/intervention-conference-celebrating-internet-creativity.shtmlThis is a guest post from James Harknell about an event he's putting on that we thought would be of interest to folks who like Techdirt

Anyone who is a reader of Techdirt knows that we are in a time of publishing
disruption -- one that has the potential to cause a huge repressive backlash to this
wonderful thing we now call the Internet. Everyone from governments,
legacy publishing companies, and large IP and patent warehouses are trying to
figure out a way to clamp down on the ability for new business models, and even
regular people, to compete using this new egalitarian international distribution
system. It simply caught them entirely by surprise, and now they want to kill it or
regulate it to their sole advantage.

So how do you fight back against this looming threat? Like Techdirt and many other
rallying websites, you bring people together to talk and build a strong community
of informed creators and fans. Mike and the other contributors to this site are doing
an excellent job of doing this online, but there is also a benefit to physically bringing
people together to discuss these issues and work directly as a community.

This is part of why we created the yearly event Intervention. Onezumi and I started Intervention (a combo of the
words "Internet" + "Convention") in 2010 as an outgrowth of our own online work
in webcomics -- an area of internet creativity that has led
to multi-million dollar business entities and phenomenal
crowdsourced kickstarter campaigns, and has made many
fully self-employed independent artists a living in its short history. While many
other types of events have online artists as guests, and also some related
programming, none were specifically designed around the needs of the DIY and
indie online artist crowd.

Besides the combo of words that created the name Intervention, we chose the
name for exactly what it represents -- an Intervention to both the business world
and the creative world; a notice to those who refuse to acknowledge that things
have changed and business adaption is needed for survival, and a call to action
to artists who feel that they aren't good enough or capable enough to succeed on
their own. This is your Intervention, a yearly place for you to learn and teach, to
build a community of like minded artists, and to pass along your knowledge to the world and be a spotlight on
the possibilities that the internet offers -- and to show what can be easily lost if we
choose not to fight to keep it.

Our next event is scheduled this September 21-23rd in Rockville, Maryland. We hope
that you can attend and help us grow this important conversation and be a part
of "Your Online Life, In-Person."

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]]>we-need-more-of-thishttps://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20120731/02205319889Wed, 17 Aug 2011 04:19:20 PDTCool Ideas: The World's First Flattrable ConferenceMike Masnickhttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110816/04013015541/cool-ideas-worlds-first-flattrable-conference.shtml
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110816/04013015541/cool-ideas-worlds-first-flattrable-conference.shtmlFlattr on the site for a little over a year now, and I'm planning to do a writeup about our experiences with the service shortly. If you weren't aware of it, Flattr is a very neat, extremely simple, way of monetarily supporting content that you like. As I noted in my initial writeup of the service, Flattr is very clever in how it gets rid of the traditional "transaction costs" problem of most micropayments system, in that each month you just have a set amount that you've already agreed to spend, and each Flattr merely divides up that pie by one more slice.

It's been interesting to see the service evolve -- especially watching as it went from closed beta to open so that anyone can use it. If you haven't yet signed up, you should at least check it out. But one of the more interesting things in how it has evolved are the unexpected ways in which the service can be used. Take, for example, a fantastic looking conference taking place in Sweden later this month, put on by Media Evolution, called The Conference (which I had wanted to attend, but was unable to make). The conference organizers have set it up so that pretty much everything at the conference is "Flattrable." Like a speaker? Flattr him/her. Like an entire session? You can Flattr it through the app or directly via QR codes around the event. See someone ask a smart question? Ask to see their badge, and you can Flattr them directly.

As far as I know, this is the first time this has been done like this and, as with any experiment, you never know for sure how it will work out, but I think it's a pretty cool experiment and I hope that it goes well. I look forward to finding out from the organizers some of what they learn from the experiment.

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]]>forget-feedback-forms...https://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20110816/04013015541Mon, 25 Apr 2011 11:15:07 PDTBig Patent Holders & Big Patent Law Firms Bring Judges To Belgium For Boondoggle...Mike Masnickhttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110425/01501514023/big-patent-holders-big-patent-law-firms-bring-judges-to-belgium-boondoggle.shtml
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110425/01501514023/big-patent-holders-big-patent-law-firms-bring-judges-to-belgium-boondoggle.shtmlCapitalist Lion Tamer points us to the troubling news that an organization of patent holders has organized a conference and is flying in a bunch of judges who deal with patent issues from around the globe to hang out with them at a conference for a few days. As Kevin Outterson notes, this seems like a major conflict of interest:

Does anyone see a conflict of interest when the world’s richest patent owners fly judges from all over the world to a 3-day conference in Brussels? Here's the lede:

Bringing nearly 100 judges from more than 30 countries to Europe. Sharing experiences among patent-experienced judges from many countries and between the patent bench and bar.

This gathering won't hear from patent skeptics. The Platinum sponsors are Akin Gump, Du Pont, ExxonMobil, Finnegan, P&G and Johnson & Johnson. The program committee is unabashedly pro-IP. No voice for the public domain; MSF, Oxfam, Jamie Love, Sean Flynn and other public interest voices aren't on the program

I'm fine with IP maximalists holding conferences; I'm worried when judges from around the planet are wined and dined while hearing only a pro-IP point of view.

I agree that this is quite troubling. The conference is being organized in part by perhaps the most powerful US patent judge, the chief judge of CAFC, Randall Rader. Rader's a very interesting guy, a fantastic speaker and extremely entertaining -- but he has a huge blind spot when it comes to understanding how patents are regularly used to stifle innovation. Perhaps that explains why the conference that he supposedly helped put together appears to feature none of the many top voices who are worried about where the patent system is today.

Perhaps even more troubling, as Outterson points out, is that this conference -- again, supposedly with Rader's support -- is being sold to patent lawyers (who have to pay $1475 plus travel and lodging to attend) as a way to get access to the very judges who will be handling their cases:

Conference attendees will have an opportunity to share experiences with nearly one hundred judges from around the world. Beginning with a welcome reception on Monday, judges will attend sessions and social events with intellectual property law attorneys and other interested parties.

As Outterson notes, this "sounds like buying social access to IP judges to me." It seems shameful that Rader would allow his name and reputation to be used for such things. It's equally shameful that USPTO boss David Kappos is appearing at the event. Again, it's fine to have events discussing IP issues, and even fine for patent system supporters to put together their own conferences. But it's troubling when the event is presented as a way to access judges, and all of the sponsors and organizers seem to have a particular view on the state of patent law today, which is seriously contrasted by actual evidence and research in the market.

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]]>conflict of interest?https://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20110425/01501514023Tue, 3 Nov 2009 18:03:16 PSTDiscount Tickets Available To SF MusicTechMike Masnickhttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20091102/2205216773.shtml
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20091102/2205216773.shtml15% discount on tickets if ordered through our site. I hope to see you there.

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]]>join-ushttps://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20091102/2205216773Mon, 14 Sep 2009 23:53:32 PDTOld Music Conference Shuts Down, Blames 'Piracy'; New, Better Event Shows Up InsteadMike Masnickhttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090914/0320226179.shtml
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090914/0320226179.shtmla fantastic looking music conference in just weeks, called all2gethernow (disclosure: they asked me to come and present, but I was unable to make it). The story behind the event is that Popkomm, one of the bigger recording industry events, held in Germany each year, was canceled this year, with the guy behind it blaming "piracy" rather than, say, the economy and structural changes in the industry. A bunch of folks in Germany who knew better decided to show Popkomm's organizers how to organize a better event these days, and scrambled, pulling together a fun-looking event to be held at the exact same time as Popkomm had originally been scheduled. I'm sorry I couldn't attend, as it really looks like it should be an excellent event. Either way, it shows not only how events can work, but how the whole industry is shifting. The top-down model is changing, and the bottom up one, where more people are empowered, is taking over.